Sometimes I forgot the fact that I actually went to South Carolina – because of this I actually forgot how beautiful the state can actually be. I had never been to the South before, so this was a whole new experience to totally.
From the flowing water, to the falling sands of the beach, it truly was magnificent.
Well, it’s that time of year again. When here in Ohio, instead of everything being a winter-wonderland…everything is, well, just we..really.
So I decided to reach way back in my photo archives (I believe this photo is from around 2014), and upload one of my favorites that I kind of forgot about.
I had a time where I really loved taking scenic pictures in the parks around my house, and at the time it was dead winter. It was cold and dreary, but it added to the whole feel of the photo.
Oddly, this area during the summer can be full of sunshine and foliage, making this area feel completely different. Maybe I will recreate this shot again when the flowers return.
If you have followed my page for some time, you’ve obviously realized that I am quite fond of Southwest scenes, deserts, and cacti.
When we went to San Diego, I truly wasn’t expecting to see as many cacti as I did. This one was actually right outside our hotel.
Truthfully, it may, and probably did, look really weird to people walking by to the local marina that I was taking a photo of a seemingly regular cactus on the side of the sidewalk. However to me, it was special, and it really made my day.
As the weather here in Ohio begins to take a turn for the worse – you know, when you have to super-insulate your house – I look back to some of the other pictures that I took while I was in San Diego.
When we first decided that this is the place we really wanted to visit, one of the main reasons is to see the amazing sunsets that are pretty much married to the West Coast. Surprisingly, until this moment above, we hadn’t seen one that had really stuck out to us. It had mostly been super cloudy.
However on one of the final nights, on a part of the trip that wasn’t supposed to happen, we headed to sunset cliffs, and came across one of the greatest sunsets the West can offer.
Out of everything that happened in San Diego, this moment was definitely one of the strangest.
Going into the cactus garden in Balboa park, I would be lying if I said wasn’t that impressed. Granted, there are no cacti in Ohio AT ALL, so seeing any of them was great. However, the whole garden seemed like an afterthought, with some of them even dying.
Then things got weird.
We walked to what we thought was the end of the path in the garden. Just as we did, we saw a cat BOLT by. Now we were near the city, so really we thought nothing of it. That was until we turned the corner and saw about 20 more.
Next, we saw a bowl of cat food. Out of nowhere, a woman approached us to tell us that they take care of the cats there, and that all of them were even taken care of by a vet and neutered – which is marked by the docked ear.
The cats ended up being very friendly, and even let us pet them. Oh, they were also really photogenic.
The best part about this picture? I never intended to feel this dark, at least the way it is portrayed here.
In fact, this is the tower in Balboa Park in San Diego – one of the brightest and cheeriest places that we spent our time in. It was warm, sunny, and overall one of the more beautiful days we had here.
For some reason, I thought this would be a good photo to turn black and white. I always have been a fan of doing this with architecture. However, when I did this, it had an unforeseen consequence…it looks like something from a horror film!
Regardless, I really liked how it came out, mostly because of the total difference this photo gives versus the real thing. The original image is below.
Black and white can do some interesting things to photos, hence why it is quickly becoming one of my favorite styles to do.
The original;
The best part of traveling to a different part of the country is not really the things that you’d expect to see, but the things you don’t expect to see.
Going to San Diego, we were well aware of the seal and sea lion population – though we’re still not good at figuring out which one is which…however we had no idea they would literally come RIGHT up to you.
This image was take in La Jolla, California – one of my favorite stops on the entire trip. What struck me most about this is how little they cared about the people constantly around them. Oh, and that they can, and will, climb the stairs.
Good evening, morning, afternoon, or whenever you may stumble upon this,
Things are changing once again! While this has remained a mostly photographic website, there are also other things that I would l like to work on as well.
This includes things such as podcasts, radio demos, short stories, maybe even longer pieces. The fun part is that it will hopefully be way more elaborate and detailed. This may even include a whole new look to the site.
As always, I love feed back! If you have any suggestions or comments, never hesitate to pass them my way.
Thanks!
~PL
While most of the work I publish on here goes without caption, for this photo, I think it deserves a little more.
To be frank, I was never supposed to be in this location. During my trip to San Diego, initially plans were to run up to LA for a day before heading home. Instead, we decided to stay near San Diego and head to Sunset Cliffs – which is what you see above.
More than any point of our trip to SoCal, I never felt more Californian than in this place. From the snake I stepped on, to the constant surfers until dark, and the beautiful boardwalks – it was truly the culmination of everything San Diego.
The fact that I was never supposed to travel here makes it even more special. Sometimes surprises aren’t such a bad thing.
 | susanlhamo on Moonlight over desert |
 | paullaux22 on Summer Dreams |
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Thoughts For Thoughtful Thots
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